(WIS 2:12, 17-20; PS 54:3-4, 5; 6 AND 8, JAS 3:16—4:3; MK 9:30-37
I saw a post on social media this week from a friend who had just finished reading Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince. They mentioned a quote from the end of the book that goes like this:
“It was important,” Professor Dumbledore said, “to fight, and fight again, and keep fighting, for only then could evil be kept at bay, though never quite eradicated…”
I read this quote a couple times and it really made me think. And then I read the readings again for today, and where I’ve been going the last few weeks with the Sunday reflections – and I was amazed how much it fell in line. The last few weeks I’ve been writing about how God’s grace truly saves us from what we could become through sin, and then raising the question of what image we try to uphold, followed by what image we should uphold through carrying our individual crosses.
In this world, we can never eradicate evil – but we can fight it, and we can keep it at bay. And through it all, there is one underlying theme that we must undergo and continue to do, that is identified in today’s readings – we must fight, and keep fighting!
Now you may be thinking, “What does todays readings have to do with fighting?”
We look at the first reading from the Book of Wisdom where it foreshadows Jesus and how he will be mocked and have to suffer. We then see in the Letter of James that we must look within ourselves to truly see where we are at and who we are at the current time, and admit where our passions lie and realize that to cultivate peace, we must have peace in our heart and sow peace in the world around us. That, if left unchecked, can lead to the worst the world has to offer. But that if our passion in what we do and ask lies with God and peace, He will help us achieve it.
And we read in the Gospel today that Jesus tells us that if we wish to be first in the eyes of God, that we must put others first and serve others before ourselves. But what does this have to do with fighting? Everything.
It’s no secret, the world is full of evil. The first reading foreshadows what will happen to Jesus and how he will be tortured and mocked and tempted because of us. But it also shows how His service and suffering leads to a greater purpose – a greater good. Jesus fought the temptation to save Himself from the suffering and the internal desires He had to stop the pain because He loved us more. His desire to save humanity was greater than the desire to stop the hurt. He fought for us.
James writes about how, where jealousy and selfish ambition reside, this leads to disorder and every foul practice. We are so often passionate about the wrong things, and the more we seek these passions, they don’t fill the void and we have to seek more. It snowballs out of control. We want to possess, and we want more, and often we ask God for this “more”. But we ask in the wrong way, for the wrong reasons. How we often ask spawns from jealousy and leads to selfish ambition, which leads to pride, which leads to evil.
James tells us that if we desire God with our hearts, and if we cultivate peace in our hearts, and in our families, and in the world around us, we will reap this peace in our own lives. We will overcome the selfishness that is instilled within us and we will fight. And we will win.
Jesus then warns in the Gospel that if we wish to be first, we must serve others. To be first, we must be last. We must put others first before ourselves, and when He mentions receiving “one child such as this in my name, receives me”, I think of the family. Whoever received their family, their kids as a blessing from God and treats them as such, receives God. It’s though the family that we receive Jesus, and ultimately the Father. It is through the family that we can truly fight evil – and keep it at bay within this world. It’s through the love of the family that we fight!
It just so happens that this week kicks off the World Meeting of Families, an every 3 year event that is here in the United States for the first time. The theme this year is, “Love is Our Mission. The Family Fully Alive”. Love is our Mission. The family is how we fight!
So many see this world and especially this country as a lost cause, and are just waiting for the end. This is sort of how I felt in reading the aftermath of the recent U.S. Presidential debate for the election still over a year away! There is so much negativity and selfishness and vanity and egotism out there, sometimes it can be nauseating. Sometimes, you question whether it is all worth it.
So many of us simply write society off, saying that the world is not like it used to be, and we wait for the end, waiting for Jesus to come. We stand idly by, saying our rosaries and going to Mass, and confession, and sitting in adoration for hours on end, trying to save our souls, and praying for others. And all that, in and of itself is all good. But what do we do with it? So often we sit and complain about the world. We complain about each other to each other. We complain about the world, but we don’t want to fight. I think of people who don’t want medical treatment that would save their child because of religious beliefs praying for God’s will, for Jesus to step in and save them through their prayer and perform a miracle. All the while, they have a world class surgeon that God has placed in their midst to help them.
We have the tools to change the world, with our faith, the graces that Christ have given us, one family at a time – but what do we do with it?
Do you just sit idly by for Jesus to come, or wait for someone else to do it? Or do you get out of your comfort zone and use the tools and gifts that God gave us, or has sent to us, and fight?
We have the opportunity to stand up and fight evil, and fight off our selfish desires through the service of others – loving our spouses, volunteering in our parish and community, and serving our youth through coaching, mentoring, simply being involved in their lives. We can teach our kids to love the faith and to love Jesus through loving and serving others rather than simply tell them that “this is the way it is done, just do it”, and helping them to see the beauty in our faith instead of just a bunch of boring rules. What we do in our little corners of the world, in our families, can combat evil and make a difference in the lives of countless others.
We can’t sit idly by and wait for Jesus to come and save us. He saves us through each other, and we have a responsibility be his servant and ultimately do His will – and fight. We must fight for Him and for each other. That’s why we live this life. So many times we fall short. If we don’t fight – and I mean spiritual warfare within, charitable warfare in the world, and loving warfare with each other, we cannot hold the evils of this world at bay. We cannot be saved. It may seem like evil has overrun the world, but that’s just what the news shows. There is so much good out there, underlying everything, and even the bad God twists into good. But the good can start with us in our families.
It is only through the family where we can truly help each other pick up our individual crosses and fight – and it’s no coincidence that my family and I are on our way to the World Meeting of Families. For this next week, our focus, and our faith, and our future, centers on the family. For this next week, Rome, the Church and our faith comes to Philadelphia. To teach us how to fight!
We must have faith. We must have love. And we must fight, and keep fighting evils with a servant’s heart – as long as we must, because that is our purpose.
And please offer your prayers for my family and I, fellow A Catholic Moment writer Mary Ortwein, and the countless other families on this pilgrimage to Philadelphia as we learn how to fight for each other!
God Bless.
